Neighborhood Groups Get on the Map

Communications Director

Neighborhood Groups Get on the Map

Posted: 07/12/2017

Looking for local neighborhood groups, their boundaries and their contact info?

Now there’s a map for that.

The Office of Neighborhoods (OON) collaborated with the Knoxville Knox County Geographical Information System (KGIS) and the City’s Engineering Department to integrate Knoxville’s neighborhood groups, homeowners’ associations and neighborhood watch groups into the multitude of maps available at www.kgis.org.

There are two ways to view the locations of approximately 100 neighborhood groups that have registered with the City of Knoxville’s Office of Neighborhoods:

• On KGIS Maps at www.kgis.org/kgismaps/map.htm, the Knoxville Neighborhood Groups layer is listed under “Other Maps” along with census tracts, the city ward map, Knox County neighborhoods, watersheds, zip codes, and other stand-alone map layers.

• The Neighborhood Groups Viewer at www.kgis.org/maps/neighborhoods.html gives the site visitor a bird’s eye view of neighborhood group boundaries, a way to search for groups, and apply other map layers, like parks and KAT bus stops. Using the Identify tool, a user can click on a neighborhood group to see its full name and contact information. Websites and Facebook pages are also displayed for groups that have them.

Wyatt Pless, an AmeriCorps volunteer in the Office of Neighborhoods from August 2016 to June 2017, initiated the project shortly before the end of his term of service and will work for the City for a few weeks to oversee the maps’ launch.

Necessity drove Pless to start the project.

“As someone new to the area, I had no idea where these neighborhoods were,” he said. He learned that Engineering’s GIS Coordinator Donna Redden had begun a KGIS map layer with about 10 neighborhoods. Pless ran with it.

He anticipates that the new map functions will serve a variety of parties, including City officials reaching out to neighborhood groups and leaders, property owners being affected by zoning changes, and neighborhood organizations that want to work together.

“We hope these maps inspire people to register their neighborhood groups with us,” Pless said.

If your resident-led, resident-controlled neighborhood group is not shown on the map, or if you have other questions or concerns, please contact Wyatt Pless at wpless@knoxvilletn.gov or 215-3456. You may also call Wyatt if you just need help with the Viewer itself.